Page 83 of Bonded Through Bite

“I said he’s calling me. Mate. Come to me. Come. Over and over and over again.” She’s talking faster now, like getting the words out quickly will help. “I feel a tug, a constant pull in my stomach, the base of my spine. My body wants to go. My mind, not so much.”

“Oh hell,” Zack growls and his eyes take on a yellow tint.

“What does that mean?” Santiago asks, beating me to the punch, and Samantha shivers.

“I’m not sure. It’s only a legend I heard as a child,” Zack says.

“What does it say?” My harsh tone seems to fray Samantha’s control and she begins to struggle in earnest. San doesn’t hesitate before tightening his hold and she falls unconscious again.

And her heart skips a beat.

The loss of that sound freezes everything.

Everyone stays quiet and immobile until Samantha’s heartbeat finds its rhythm again. Even unconscious, her hands twitch and her eyelids flutter. I try looking at our bond but only get a confusing feeling of a shifting black mass.

“There’s an old story,” the wolf finally says. “A pair of shifters that could hear each other. Things didn’t turn out well.”

“Could you be a bit more specific?”

“I’m trying to remember, but I only heard it once and the person who told it to me is no longer alive. My great-grandfather.”

“Well—”

“Rafael,” Santiago cuts in and I close my eyes, trying to calm down.

Zack’s voice is rough when he speaks. “She was a powerful shifter, power-hungry too. According to the legend, she bonded with someone and drove them mad. Like literally frothing at the mouth mad. He went on a killing spree. Some say she told him to, others say that he just tried to get rid of the voices in his head.”

When he drifts off and I lift my head, Santiago meets my gaze. Forcing my voice to stay even, I ask, “And you think it has something to do with Samantha?”

“I don’t know, but normal shifters don’t hear their mates. And the thing in the woods was not a normal shifter in any way. She is not a shifter.” His voice turns to deep growls and it’s clear he’s struggling to keep his wolf in check.

I bet it wants to break free and hunt down the beast who dares to lay claim to Samantha. I have the same urge.

“Well then… Do you remember anything from the legend that might help us to kill this beast?” San asks.

“In the story… the mates ended up killing each other.”

“Fuck no,” I roar.

“Not an option,” Santiago says, much more calmly, but the rage in his eyes is no less than mine.

“She said we won’t be able to find him. Do we take her word for it, or try to track him down?” Zack looks at me and then at Santiago. “I know his scent, but I’m in no condition to run in the forest for a couple more days. This can’t wait that long.”

“Do you trust someone from the pack?” Santiago asks.

“Cain is an excellent tracker, the best I’ve come across outside of alphas. Henry always bragged about him.”

“Do you trust him?”

“To do his best to track down the one who killed her alpha’s mate? Yes. To protect Samantha? No.”

“Well, Samantha won’t be anywhere near the action anyway,” I huff and stroke her hair. She’s resting quietly for now.

“And who is going to stay back and watch her?” Santiago asks, all reasonable. It almost makes me want to laugh. All of us want to stay with her just as badly as we want to go hunt and tear down the thing into pieces.

When my phone buzzes, I almost ignore it, but when the buzz keeps going, I reach over to silence it. What I see on the screen makes my blood freeze.

“We have a problem.”